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The curtain hasn’t quite come down on the 2022/23 season, with a huge Manchester derby in the FA Cup final and a Champions League showpiece for City still to come, as well as West Ham’s chance to claim Europa Conference League glory. However, the Premier League is done and dusted until August.
It was a remarkable season, memorable for yet another stunning level of consistency from Pep Guardiola’s men, Newcastle’s rise to the Champions League, Everton’s last-day top-flight survival, and far too many insane results to list here. However, for many, the 2022/23 Premier League campaign has been most remarkable due to the exploits of one man: Erling Haaland.
Haaland has broken many records both this season and during his wider career. One in particular is our main focus here, as with 36 Premier League goals in his debut campaign in England, the Norwegian Terminator broke a longstanding record.
Haaland Surpasses Cole and Shearer
No player can match Haaland’s tally of 36 goals in a single Premier League campaign. The record was previously held jointly by Alan Shearer, the competition’s leading scorer overall, and Andy Cole. Both of those legends bagged 34 during the early years of the rebranded competition. It is very much worth noting, however, that at that stage there were 22 teams in the English top flight, and thus 42 games. Now, there are 20 and 38 respectively, with the previous record for a 38-game season being held by Mo Salah, who notched 32 in 2017/18.
Cole managed 34 goals in 40 games in 1993/94 for Newcastle United. The following season Alan Shearer, then at Blackburn Rovers, hit the same number from 42 games. Cole scored his goals at a rate of 0.85 per game, with Shearer slightly behind on 0.81. In 1995/96 Shearer won the Premier League Golden Boot for the second year running (he would add a third 12 months on) and although he “only” scored 31 times, his goals-per-game ratio was better at 0.89.
In the Premier League few players have managed to score more efficiently than that over the course of a season (with a minimum of 30 matches played). Cristiano Ronaldo managed 0.91 in 2007/08, with Didier Drogba matching that two seasons later. In 2013/14 Liverpool’s Luis Suarez performed even more effectively with a ratio of 0.94, before Harry Kane topped that thanks to 29 goals in 30 games during the 2016/17 campaign (0.97). Even Salah only managed 0.89 when setting the 38-game-season record of 32 goals, whilst over the years netting just once every other game (0.50 ratio) has been enough to land the PL Golden Boot.
But Haaland has certainly changed all that. His 36 goals smashed both Salah’s record for a 20-team PL and also the overall goals record held by Cole and Shearer. Moreover, with 36 goals in 35 games, he became the first player in Premier League history to average better than a goal per game over the course of a whole season. Below we provide more details of just how the mighty Norwegian went about averaging 1.03 goals per Premier League game in 2022/23!
Haaland 2022/23 Premier League Goals Record
Below you can see some key facts about the Leeds-born star’s record-breaking Premier League season.
- 36 goals
- 35 games
- 1.03 goals per game
- Scored every 77 minutes
- 4 hat-tricks
- 23 goals with left foot
- 6 with right foot
- 7 headers
- 7 penalties
- 8 assists
- Player of the Month in August and April
Perhaps the scariest thing for Man City’s Premier League rivals is that Haaland will surely get better. His acquisition prompted a fairly big shift in City’s style and it seems certain that his teammates will be better at finding him next season, whilst he himself will fit into City’s structure better too. He is not 23 until 21st July 2023 and can be expected to peak in two or three years.
Additionally, he hit the woodwork five times last season, with no other player doing so more often. He also, perhaps surprisingly, tops a metric that he would probably rather not. The Norwegian missed 28 big chances last term, almost 30% more than the next “best” (Marcus Rashford with 22). That stat taken in isolation does not necessarily tell the whole story, however, as Haaland no doubt also scored more big chances than his rivals. However, it certainly does suggest that he can improve on his benchmark of 36 goals next term.
Haaland Premier League Goals by Club
As noted, the PL top scorer in 2022/23 bagged four hat-tricks. He also scored a brace on five occasions, including his debut, scoring a solitary goal in a further 14 games. That means there were actually 12 games where Haaland failed to score – what a chump! Below we can see a table of how many goals the powerful forward scored against each side.
| Team | Total Goals | At Etihad | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Aston Villa | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bournemouth | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Brentford | 0 | 0 | 0 (rested) |
| Brighton | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Chelsea | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Crystal Palace | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Everton | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Fulham | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Leeds United | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Leicester City | 2 | 2 | 0 (injured) |
| Liverpool | 0 | 0 (injured) | 0 |
| Man United | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Newcastle United | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Notts Forest | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Southampton | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Spurs | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| West Ham | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Wolves | 4 | 3 | 1 |
22 of his goals came at home, with 14 away, which is a fairly normal split. In addition, whilst he failed to score at all against Liverpool, Chelsea and Brentford, his goals were reasonably evenly distributed among teams at the top and bottom of the table.
He managed seven in six games against the three relegated sides but that rate of 1.17 goals per game is only a little over his average against all teams. He is certainly no flat-track bully though, having bagged six in six against the other three teams that made up the league’s top four.
How many will Haaland get in next season’s Premier League? If he stays fit, there is certainly no reason why 40+ league strikes should not be achievable for this phenomenal forward!